Cleaning sticks are already known which consist of an elongated hollow member in the form of a deformable stick firmly closed at one of its ends. The hollow member houses a closed container which can be broken and which contains a liquid cleaning agent, and an absorbent material covers the other end of the stick-shaped hollow member and projects on the outside of said member. These sticks can be joined together into groups of several sticks which can be manually separated. The hollow stick-shaped member can be formed, for example, by a small deformable plastics tube closed at one of its ends. Said small plastics tube acts as a housing for a glass phial containing the cleaning liquid, which is sealed by fusion. The outlet end of the small plastics tube is closed by a stopper consisting of a compressed absorbent wad.
In order to use this known cleaning stick, one presses it longitudinally against the edge of a table with the wad downwards, so as to break the glass phial. The cleaning liquid which is released by breaking the glass phial impregnates the wad, which is then rubbed over the surface to be cleaned, for example over the type of a typewriter.
These known cleaning sticks suffer from disadvantages in that a relatively large force is required to break the glass phial, and when the glass phial is broken it is always possible for glass splinters to be produced which pass through the small plastics tube and injure the fingers of the user. A further drawback of the known cleaning sticks is that because a wad is used, it is possible during cleaning for fibres from the wad to be caught on the object being cleaned.
Furthermore, the method used for manufacturing the known cleaning sticks, in which phials are filled with the cleaning liquid, the glass phials are sealed by fusion, and are then placed in small previously manufactured plastics tubes, the stick then finally being sealed by a wad-type stopper, is both laborious and costly.